Amity

WORD OF THE DAY

amity / noun / AM-uh-tee

Definition:
1: friendship, especially friendly relations between nations

Examples
"He's one of the few people … to have a deep, long-lasting amity with Russell, who guards his privacy and is fiercely dismissive of the social whirl."
— Bruce Jenkins, The San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Sept. 2021

This simple act, motivated by compassion and amity, often leads to disaster and heartache.
— James Berman, Forbes, 3 Sep. 2021

Did You Know?
Amity has been used in English to describe friendship or friendliness for well over 500 years.
It is derived from the Latin word for "friend," amicus, and has come to be used especially for relationships between political leaders and nations in which goodwill is shown despite differences that might exist between the two parties.
Amicus is also the root of the adjectives amiable and amicable.
Amiable implies having qualities that make one liked and easy to deal with—for example, "The owners of the bed-and-breakfast were very amiable."
Amicable is closer in meaning to amity: it implies friendliness and politeness with the desire to avoid disagreement and argument.
A relationship between coworkers might be described as amicable.
Other family members of amicus are the Spanish borrowing amigo ("friend") and the antonymous enemy, which developed from the Latin combination of the prefix in- ("not") with amicus.